Bake
Burn
In a dangerous fire, a gambler will always try to bake something before fleeing to safety. It could be his own house on fire, and the gambler would still use the free heat source to get some baking done. Maybe he's gambling that those baked goods will offset the cost of a new home…
This kanji also means burn, because that's what happens when you expose something to a lot of heat.
しょう
や
None
He used to bake for the Yankees (や). Baseball cakes, bat baguettes, that kind of thing. A career-ending kitchen injury forced him to retire. That's when he developed a gambling problem. But he still likes to bake whenever the Yankees are on TV.